The Jungle GiantsIt's all happening. With Alice Ivy signing an international deal with Last Gang Records and Evan Klar getting snatched up by the US's Interscope label, these two emerging artists have been brought together to play for us here tonight.
With both Klar and Ivy playing a futuristic, space-like brand of singer-songwriter music, their pairing on tonight's bill is both logical and highly danceable. Perhaps a duet is in order?
After recently appearing within the top 20 of triple j's Hottest 100 with Feel The Way I Do, The Jungle Giants are here at 170 Russell to battle post-Easter break depression and cheer up their university-going fanbase. The mechanical four-piece bust out their rhythmic hits with practised exuberance, performing many a song from their latest album Quiet Ferocity. Lead singer Sam Hales works the crowd as they Snapchat his confident, slacker style. He hits all the right notes without too much of an indie-pop affectation. Songs like Used To Be In Love and Bad Dream pull the whole band together for some steady grooving, while Feel The Way I Do explodes with a squeaky synth in the chorus that's only slightly annoying.
Like many alternative acts that manage to grab the attention of a mainstream audience, the biggest appeal of the band is their ability to straddle the line between genres. Despite the usual suspects of guitars and drums, you'd be hard-pressed to classify the Jungle Giants with a rough label like "rock music". You can picture their shiny brand of indie-pop blasting from any nightclub sound system in Melbourne. Their tunes are the catchy calm before the storm of someone crying, "This is my jam!"
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Indie-pop experts and synth gear fetishists are unlikely to find much to love within the world of The Jungle Giants, and that's fine. What they ultimately bring to the table is quality songwriting, tight instrumentation and some nice, danceable tunes. It's no wonder they've become the latest darlings of triple j, the music of The Jungle Giants is just awfully agreeable. They deserve their success. Their talent for sticky pop melodies and car commercial choruses suggest that they're capable of far more than what Quiet Ferocity has to offer. But tonight, the merry band and their crowd have lost themselves to one of life's most undeniable pleasures, dancing like a maniac on a Friday night. And perhaps that's good enough for now.
